11.30.05

A new plan by the Transportation Security Administration would allow airline passengers to bring scissors and other sharp objects in their carry-on bags because the items no longer pose the greatest threat to airline security, according to sources familiar with the plans.

In a series of briefings this week, TSA Director Edmund S. “Kip” Hawley told aviation industry leaders that he plans to announce changes at airport security checkpoints that would allow scissors less than four inches long and tools, such as screwdrivers, less than seven inches long, according to people familiar with the TSA’s plans. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the TSA intends to make the plans public Friday.

The proposed policy must already be in place, unofficially, as for months I’ve been hearing first-hand reports of persons who’ve had no trouble bringing nail clippers, pen knives, razor blades, etc. within their carry-on luggage. Either that, or the TSA is staffed by boneheaded simpletons who are otherwise unqualified to work at Taco Bell (and being a proud American who is on his way to the airport, I know that couldn’t be the case).

And I suppose the agency has to play the percentages. With only three known instances of persons successfully using box cutters to hijack a plane and crash it into a building (4, if you include the “Let’s Roll” flight, though they struggled with the 2nd half of the equation) in the past 50 months, the TSA are probably just trying to be cost efficient.